St George Illawarra was hit harder than any other team when it came to representative duties on Friday night, but the burden only seemed to spur them on in Sunday's 22-8 NRL defeat of North Queensland.

Even without four of their most important attacking weapons and with six players backing up from Test and City-Country duty, the defending premiers somehow kept their standard as high as it has been all year in front of a solid crowd at Kogarah Jubilee Oval.

Jamie Soward, Nathan Fien and Jason Nightingale all failed to recover from Friday and, along with the absence of Darius Boyd, the Dragons had every excuse to be off their game.

But Wayne Bennett's side showed off its incredible depth across the park, with players stepping up where needed to fill the void.

Although it was not reflected in the final scoreline, North Queensland, which had just Johnathan Thurston and Matt Scott doubling up from Friday, did not play that badly.

The Cowboys' only crime was not making the most of opportunities, but they are not the first team to find out that you only need to give the Dragons an inch and they will run a mile.

Firming as favourite for the NSW number nine position, Young powered over to give the home side an early 6-2 lead.

Thurston and Matt Bowen were controlling proceedings for the Cowboys midway through the first half with their kicking games and, at one point, they earned five back-to-back sets of six on the Dragons line.

However St George Illawarra's unflappable defence did not look like splitting and, in the end, it was the Cowboys who cracked.

Five-eighth Ray Thompson gifted Ben Hornby an intercept pass before he fired an offload to flying winger Morris, who sprinted 90 metres to score the telling try of the match in the 29th minute.

The Dragons then showed how dangerous they can be in broken play when Mark Gasnier and Stanley featured heavily in an incredible ad-lib try, which was eventually finished off by Stanley for an 18-2 half-time lead.

The game came to a screaming halt in the second half, with a Hornby try and a Thurston consolation the only highlights.

Dragons full-back Bronx Goodwin was forced off the field with what looked like a serious knee injury, while Gasnier played on despite leg trouble.